Office of the Historian

740.00119 EAC/12–1444: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, December 14, 1944—8 p.m.
[Received December 14—5:02 p.m.]

11085. Personal for the Secretary. My 10733, December 4, midnight, in reply to Department’s 9961, November 28, 1 p.m.4 In answer to your message, I received from Gousev today a letter withdrawing in unequivocal language the Soviet reservation concerning approval of the instrument of unconditional surrender for Germany. Text follows:

“In connection with the question which you raised with me in a conversation of November 30 regarding the reservation to the instrument of unconditional surrender of Germany, have the honor to inform you that the Soviet Government agrees to withdraw the reservation made by it in my letter of September 14, 1944 inasmuch as the Government of Great Britain has withdrawn its reservations presented in Sir William Strang’s letter of August 31, 19445 and that the Soviet Government will not make any reservations whatsoever regarding this question unless the Government of Great Britain or the Government of the United States of America makes an analogous reservation.”

[Page 423]

The status of the surrender instrument is that it has been approved without reservation by the three Governments.

This took some doing. I thought you would like to know that I got this done directly with the Russians without British assistance. My best always.

Winant
  1. See footnote 87, p. 415.↩
  2. See telegrams 7138, September 1, and 7679, September 17, from London, pp. 329 and 338, respectively.↩